


Strangers on a Train

by PinkSeelie



Series: Clerith Drabbles [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 10:13:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24848107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkSeelie/pseuds/PinkSeelie
Summary: “My friend thought you were cute so she tried to take a picture of you for snapchat and her flash went off but when you looked our way she shoved her phone into my hands and nOW YOU THINK IT’S ME AND OH GOD PLS DON’T BE MAD” AU but with a slight twist.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife
Series: Clerith Drabbles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1800433
Comments: 25
Kudos: 127





	Strangers on a Train

**Author's Note:**

> It's been ages since I sat down and wrote fanfiction for anything - but after playing through the remake and falling in love with the chemistry between Aerith and Cloud, I simply just had to write something! This was originally supposed to be nothing but a short drabble, maybe around 1000 words or so... but I got carried away and it kind of wrote itself. The AU is one I found on Tumblr years ago, it was saved in a document I have - so I don't take any credit for the idea!
> 
> I apologise if this is a little boring, if the characters are a little off, and if it's full of mistakes - I mostly wrote this for myself since I'd been itching to write something but I hope other people out there can still enjoy it!

Cloud sees _her_ for the first time on what had originally appeared to be just another Tuesday afternoon.

Exhausted and sore from another intense workout with his best friend Zack, Cloud is completely lost in his own world as he steps onto the packed train and maneuvers through the many people as gracefully as possible with a huge gym bag strapped to his back.

A sigh of relief escapes his lips when he finally finds an open spot in the middle of the busy train, and he quickly squeezes past a group of what appears to be high schoolers to get there before anyone else can fill it with their presence.

Turning to face the window and block out the buzzing of people chatting around him, Cloud raises an arm to grab a hold of the pole secured above the window to steady himself as the train starts to move once more.

Cloud stares absentmindedly at the scenery outside as it moves and changes with the movement of the train. He feels his eyelids become heavy, soothed by the soft vibrations of the train, his entire body longing for a hot shower and the softness of his bed at home. Thoughts of Zack yelling encouragements at him in the gym, pushing him to perform better than their previous workout makes Cloud shudder, and he furrows his brows slightly at the soreness of his muscles.

His trance is suddenly broken when someone pushes past him after the train comes to a halt, the force almost making Cloud taste glass when his face gets dangerously close to the window. Tightening his grip on the pole above, Cloud throws a glare over his shoulder while trying to scope out the culprit.

Disappointingly, he only manages a glimpse of the back of what appears to be the culprit’s head as they rush through the separating train doors. Sighing quietly to himself, his eyes shift to the name of the stop written on a rusty sign on the platform outside. He briefly notes that it’s a stop he’s never paid much attention to before, just another one between his personal point A and B.

Just as Cloud is about to turn back to look out the window, he sees _her_ , and the breath he was about to take escapes him. With emerald green eyes cast downwards, a girl Cloud definitely hasn’t seen on this train before makes her way past several men in business suits and teenagers in uniforms without ever bumping into anyone. In her hands, she’s carrying a worn book and a small leafy plant neatly tucked into a terracotta pot.

Completely oblivious to his existence, chocolatey brown locks dance across her shoulders as she steps into an open spot near Cloud. The girl shifts her grip on the plant carefully, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth as she struggles to open her book without dropping anything.

Cloud almost asks if she needs help, almost being the keyword. He catches himself before the words spill out of his mouth, though, and he lets out a surprised gulp when he realises he has been staring like a creep.

Forcing himself to look away, his grip tightens on the pole above as he tries to ignore the presence of the breathtaking stranger. While he does his best to ignore her, a sweet and pleasing scent of flowery perfume hits him, the fragrance almost soothing. Something about it reminds him of home, and the comfort of his mother’s welcoming embrace whenever he visits his hometown.

The ridiculousness of those thoughts makes a short and quiet snort escape Cloud’s lips. _Get it together_ , he tells himself curtly, shaking his head as he lets out a strangled breath and pulls his phone from his pocket to distract himself.

Too occupied with the small electronic device in his hand, Cloud doesn’t notice the brief side glance of emerald eyes and the small smile on soft lips.

* * *

The second time he notices her on the train, he seriously questions why every cell in his body feels drawn to her and the softness of her presence.

The summer heat is intense that day, and the air in the train is stuffy and hot as it rolls between stops. Squeezed together tightly around a pole in the middle of the train, Cloud pushes blond locks out of his face with a soft groan as he tries his best to feign interest in the story that his friend, Wedge, is excitedly telling their mutual friend, Biggs, with a bit too much enthusiasm.

It’s not that he actually isn’t interested or doesn’t care, as he always tells his friends when they notice his attention drifting. It’s just that he’s a guy who often gets carried away by the thoughts in his head, and right now his head is filled with nothing but thoughts of how much he dislikes the summer season.

Luckily for Cloud, his friends don’t seem to mind considering they still keep him around despite his tendency to be a little distant and unresponsive. Sure, his childhood friend Tifa sometimes gives him disapproving looks when she catches him not paying attention. She knows he tries his best, though, and that he actually loves and appreciates all of them, even if he’d rather be caught dead than admitting it out loud.

“— what do you think, Cloud?”

The lack of response from the blond makes a mischievous smirk spread on Biggs’ lips as he gently punches Cloud’s shoulder and snaps his fingers in front of the distant ocean blue eyes. “Earth to Spikey!”

A soft grunt falls from Cloud’s lips as he shoots his friend a glare lacking any actual anger in response. “What?”

“Wedge here was just asking for your opinion on Tifa’s suggestion to get Jessie that new dresser she always talks about for her birthday.”

Cloud blinks, considers it for a second, and then shrugs his shoulders. “Dunno. I don’t really care,” he replies honestly, not too worried about what they gift his friend. He knows someone else will figure out the perfect present. “If she thinks that’ll make Jessie happy then sure.”

His reply seems to please his friends as Wedge nods enthusiastically before moving on to a different topic. Meanwhile, Cloud reaches up to tug at the collar of his shirt, mentally cursing himself out for ever thinking that wearing something with a high collar on a hot day like this would be a good idea.

The train comes to a halt again, and the doors not far from where the three are standing slowly open up, letting outside air rush through the train. Cloud almost lets out a sigh of relief when it hits his overheated skin, salvaging the cool feeling that disappears much too soon as more people press into the already packed train before the doors close behind them.

Not long after the train has set into motion once more, a unique scent that he immediately recognises wafts through the stuffy air. It makes his eyes move quickly to glance at the monitor on the train still showing which stop on the line they’d just departed from.

 _Her_ stop, he recognises.

Cloud isn’t sure what makes him do it, but he awkwardly attempts to look around without being too obvious, inspecting any new passengers while also trying not to gain his friends’ unwanted attention. He doesn’t see her, though, and he’s suddenly fairly certain that he’s either gone completely mad or, the more plausible explanation, that someone else on the train just so happens to be wearing the same perfume as her.

Caught up in his thoughts, Cloud fails to notice the musical tone that plays in the train’s speakers followed by a robotic voice announcing the next stop, and the sudden decrease in the train’s velocity catches him by surprise. Unprepared for the change, Cloud clumsily takes a step back to regain his balance, successfully bumping his back into someone standing behind him.

Already dreading any annoyed or angry remarks from whoever he bumped into, Cloud is quick to step back to his original spot before shifting on his feet to face the person behind him with an insincere apology ready on his tongue.

The apology, however, gets lost in his throat when his blue eyes lock with an emerald green pair.

A second or two pass, and neither Cloud nor the stranger in front of him say anything.

Eventually, Cloud manages to knock some sense into his brain, fighting the urge to smack himself in the face for acting strange. “I— ‘scuse me. I’m sorry about that. Lost my balance,” he explains as his eyes dart away to look at anything but the heart shaped face of the girl from before.

“Don’t worry, it’s okay,” her unfamiliar and yet so soothing voice assures him, followed by a soft chuckle. “Happens to me more than I’d like to admit!”

Cloud’s gaze eventually, and completely against his will, moves back to the girl in front of him, and he feels a shudder creep its way up his spine when he notices the sweet smile spread on her pink lips. At a loss for words, Cloud lets out a strained chuckle of his own and nods his head.

Silence falls between them again. The way her emerald green eyes seem to study his face curiously makes Cloud’s blood boil and itch under his skin, and he desperately feels the need to get away. “Sorry again,” he finally spills before turning on his feet to face his friends again, ignoring the burn of her gaze still on him that he feels on the back of his neck. If either of his friends notice the redness on the face, neither decide it’s actually worth questioning.

* * *

And so it continues. Throughout the next month or so of intense summer heat and stuffy train carriages, Cloud comes across the enchanting girl on his way home from work more times that he can count.

He mentally curses at himself whenever his breath hitches in his throat as his eyes catch a glimpse of her, angrily reminding himself that he’s not a high schooler but a 25-year-old man with more important things in life to worry about than a random, superficial crush on a girl he knows absolutely nothing about.

Yet her presence does things to him, messes with his head whenever he watches her carefree smile as she steps onto the train with such grace, one hand always occupied by a book.

He has no idea why he’s so drawn to her or why his body almost aches with disappointment on the days their travel schedules don’t seem to align or the train carriage is too filled for her to end up anywhere near him. But it does, and Cloud isn’t sure how he feels about it.

To distract himself from everything that is her outside of the train, Cloud pushes himself to be more effective at work and tells Zack to push him even harder during their now more frequent workouts. He even goes as far as to call his mother more frequently, letting her vent about the changes in his hometown and his lack of visits, just to get his mind off the beautiful girl with enchanting green eyes.

* * *

It’s the first rainy day in a while when _the incident_ happens.

On a late Friday evening, Cloud gets on his usual train accompanied by his friend Jessie, who lets out a drunk chuckle when she pushes past him and makes it to a seat not far from the doors in a couple of strides. She slumps into one of the seats and looks up, gently patting the free seat next to her with a suggestive grin spreading on her face.

“Come on, Cloud, don’t be shy. Join me!”

Cloud lets out an annoyed huff, rolling his eyes, before he reluctantly makes his way towards his friend. He’d promised Tifa to help Jessie get home safe only half an hour ago, when his childhood friend had reminded him that he was the only one who lived in the same area as his intoxicated friend.

Sighing, Cloud sits down, biting back a remark when Jessie’s drunken smile widens and she immediately starts speaking nonsense about something that had happened at the bar earlier. Cloud tunes her out and instead inspects the rest of the carriage. Luckily, it’s mostly empty. A stark contrast to the overfilled and stuffy carriage he usually gets into after work, where sitting down is never even an option.

It takes a few stops but eventually Jessie quiets down, sudden exhaustion overtaking her. Cloud pulls out his phone, noting that it isn’t even past 10 PM yet. _So much for ‘partying all night’_ , he thinks to himself with a snort, repeating the words that Jessie had happily exclaimed when all of them had met up at 7th Heaven, the bar owned by the oldest member of their friend group, Barret.

Cloud had quietly sipped on a glass of whiskey at the bar while watching his friends get drunk, preferring the buzz of something hard and bitter over sloppily downing beer after beer.

Of course that had been mistake number one, he notes bitterly, as getting less drunk than everyone else always put an enormous amount of responsibility on his shoulders. Something that he hadn’t been in the mood for to begin with after a stressful and tiring day at work. So when Jessie had gotten out of control and Tifa had insisted he take her home, Cloud had just let out an unimpressed groan and agreed, too tired to fight what he knew was a lost cause anyway.

As the train crosses one of the more bumpy bridges on the line, Jessie stirs awake from her quick nap. Reenergised, she throws an arm over Cloud’s shoulders, ignoring his grunt of protest, and pulls him closer. “Come on, blondie, cheer up!”

“Jessie—”

“Nope, not listening! We ought to hang out more, you know. You’re always so busy with work and staying fit,” Jessie begins, poking at Cloud’s bicep with her free hand. “Do you even do anything else? Oh, I know! We should plan a trip with the others. I’m sure you can take a few days off from work, right? We could all go somewhere tropical, relax on a beach with a cold drink in hand! Yes, that sounds amazing! Or we could—”

Cloud tunes her out again, knowing very well that Jessie doesn’t actually need any input from him to keep going.

While Jessie yaks on and on in his ear, Cloud lets his gaze inspect the carriage again. His eyes land on the monitor that blinks with the name of the upcoming stop and he pauses. _Her_ stop.

A pang of hope fills him, and he immediately frowns at his own body’s reaction. _It’s nowhere near the time she usually gets on the train_ , he reminds himself while running a tired hand through his blond locks. Cloud briefly glances at Jessie who’s still talking. _Besides, she’s probably lucky enough to not get dragged out by obnoxious friends after work_ , he thinks bitterly, though the corners of his mouth lift slightly at the fondness he still carries for his friends despite how much he claims they annoy the hell out of him.

The train comes to a halt again, and the doors separate with a quiet mechanical creak. No one walks out. No one walks in. A fairly normal occurrence this time of the day.

Just as the train doors are about to close, a feminine frame squeezes through the shrinking gap, clad in a soft pale pink dress and a cropped red jacket. Brown locks are quickly pushed out of the heart shaped face with a delicate hand as the girl lets out a relieved sigh, her breathing heavy. Clutching a clear umbrella in one hand, the girl moves to drop down into the nearest seat. For a few seconds, she leans back in the seat with a content smile growing on her lips as her eyes close. Just for a second, though, until she composes herself and pulls out her phone and a pair of earbuds from a pocket in her jacket.

Cloud lips are parted slightly as he watches her, painfully aware that he’s being way too obvious. However, her unexpected presence has somehow completely taken him by surprise, and he realises too late that he’s practically frozen in his seat.

“— Spikey, hello, are you even listening to me?” He hears Jessie say, her slightly slurred words bringing him back to reality. He lets out a shaky breath and tries his best to act nonchalant when he turns his head to look at his friend with a raised eyebrow. He realises he’s made a grand mistake, though, when his friend’s eyes aren’t on him but instead on the subject of his own attention mere seconds ago.

“Who’s this then?” Jessie whispers, not at all as quietly as she thinks, and leans closer to Cloud without taking her eyes off the girl. “Do you know her?”

Cloud cringes slightly at Jessie’s poor attempt to keep her voice lowered, his gaze shifting to the girl for just a second. Relief settles over him when he notices the earbuds are now in her ears. With a glare, he turns back to Jessie. “Could you lower your voice?”

“Relax, spikey! Why so tense anyway? Who is she?”

“I— I don’t know her.”

“You sure did stare at her for a long time for her to be someone you don’t know.”

“S-shut up.”

A smirk slowly spreads on Jessie’s face. “Interesting,” she starts, her tongue poking out to wet her lips. “Very interesting.”

“What’s so interesting about it,” Cloud questions, trying his best to sound uninterested. “I just recognised her. She usually gets on this train when I’m on my way home from work, that’s all.”

Jessie ignores him and instead fishes out her phone from her bag. Cloud watches as she opens up the messenger app and immediately starts to type out a string of messages. When he tries to lean closer, squinting to read what it says, Jessie shields her phone from his view with a suspiciously smug laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Cloud asks with a frown.

“Oh nothing, my dear Cloud,” Jessie giggles behind her phone before she presses send one last time. “I was just telling Tifa about this crush of yours.”

Blood rushes to his face at Jessie’s words, and he turns away with a strained huff. “I— I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jessie hums in response, clearly not convinced in the slightest. Before Cloud can say more to defend himself, Jessie’s phone vibrates as a reply comes in. When she reads it carefully, the smirk that Cloud has grown to dislike reappears on her face. Jessie then slowly lowers her phone suspiciously slow, turning it in her hands as if to angle the back of it perfectly towards the girl opposite them just a few seats away.

It happens the second Cloud realises what Jessie is trying to do. Jessie taps on her phone’s screen to take what she expects to be a secret photo of the girl, a grin practically glued to her face when her eyes meet Cloud’s shocked ones.

The grin is quickly wiped off her face, though, when the flash on the back of her phone blinks brightly in the carriage, completely unmissable.

In a split second, Jessie panics and shoves her phone into Cloud’s hands. The blond, in the middle of turning to look at the subject of the photo, doesn’t react quickly enough and ends up staring directly into surprised emerald green eyes with horror written all over his face. The phone rests between his fingers, forgotten.

The girl looks at him for a second, her gaze dropping briefly to the phone in his hands, and the corners of her mouth move downwards until a frown forms on her face. Cloud notices how she almost looks _disappointed_. She doesn’t say anything, though, and instead just grabs her belongings and gets up. Without another look in their direction, she walks to the opposite end of the carriage and sits down in a new seat that leaves her facing away from Cloud and Jessie.

A few seconds of silence go by.

“Oh. My. God. That did not just happen,” Jessie breathes eventually, voice finally lowered enough to be a whisper.

Cloud just blinks, absolutely horrified.

“I— Cloud I’m sorry, I shoudn’t have done that,” Jessie continues, her hands quickly plucking her phone out of Cloud’s hands. “We— I should go apologise.”

Just as Jessie attempts to get out of her seat, Cloud pushes her back down with a strong hand on her shoulder. “I think you’ve done enough already,” he sighs. He doesn’t want to do this but he knows leaving an apology to his still intoxicated, if slightly sobered up by now, friend is a bad idea. “I’ll do it.”

“Cloud,” Jessie starts, the rest of her argument lost in her throat when Cloud stands up.

Running a hand through his messy blond locks, Cloud moves towards the other end of the carriage with heavy and reluctant steps. He almost decides against it, convincing himself that the girl probably doesn’t care for an apology anyway, but just as he’s about to stop and turn around, he swears he hears his mother’s disapproving voice in his head, telling him that she’d raised him better than this.

Cloud sighs, defeated, and keeps going until he makes it where the brunette girl is seated. Without waiting for approval, he drops down in the seat opposite hers and wills himself to look up from the floor.

Green eyes meet his blues again, and Cloud feels his heart skip a beat at the hint of anger and confusion that lingers in them.

“Can we— I mean, can I talk for a moment? Will you hear me out if I try to explain?”

The brunette pushes a lock of hair behind her ear, eyes still locked with his as she nods. “Okay.”

Cloud feels his face heat up in embarrassment. “Thank you, I— I’m sorry about what just happened. I would never, _never_ , take a photo of a stranger like that,” he tries to reassure the girl, his already weak attempt at confidence faltering at the doubt in her green eyes. “My friend, Jessie, she’s had a few too many beers tonight, and she thought it was a good idea to take a photo. She— the phone is hers, I swear, and I think she panicked or something because she pushed it into my hands right after this all happened.”

“That doesn’t really make me feel any better,” the girl admits, her voice stern yet soft at the same time.

Cloud blinks. _Of course it doesn’t, you idiot_ , he mentally scolds himself. “Right. The photo— it’s deleted, or it will be right after this,” Cloud tries, feeling smaller when the frown on the girl’s face doesn’t even budge.

Before he can continue, Jessie joins in with a yell from the other end of the carriage. “The photo is gone, poof, completely deleted! I promise— no, I pinky promise!” To further prove her point, Jessie waves her phone in the air as if either of them would ever be able to make out what’s on the screen from where they’re seated.

A groan escapes Cloud’s lips as he once again runs a hand through his hair. “The point is,” he continues with his gaze glued to the floor, regaining the attention of the girl in front of him. “I’m really sorry for what happened. The photo is gone and I promise this will never happen again.”

Carefully, Cloud forces himself to meet the gaze of the girl again. She looks slightly less angry, he notes, though the confusion is still clear in her eyes.

He hears a quiet sigh fall from the girl’s pink lips. “I guess I can accept your apology,” she eventually tells him, voice soft and vulnerable. “But can you at least tell me why your friend took a photo of me to begin with?”

Cloud feels the back of his neck burn, embarrassment flooding his veins as he tries to think of a reasonable answer to her question. “I—,” he begins, voice cracking.

“It’s just a little creepy, you know,” the brunette tells him quietly when he doesn’t continue.

“Basically she convinced herself that I was interested in you, thought it was hilarious and then decided to message a friend of ours all about it. We— _they_ had quite a lot to drink earlier, as I’m sure you can imagine, so the other friend of mine must’ve suggested Jessie over there take a photo of you out of curiosity,” Cloud suddenly spills, the guilt accumulated in his body finally taking over. “They’re nice people deep down, I swear, but they always get weird about these things when it comes to me. I— I suppose they’re just not used to it, and so they get overly excited. Even more so when intoxicated.”

Cloud lets out a relieved grunt, his body feeling lighter after letting all of that out. He silently thanks the alcohol that still simmers in his blood for helping him get through this, convinced he would’ve backed out and ignored all of it otherwise.

Emerald eyes watch him carefully for a few seconds, emotions that Cloud can’t identify shining in them. Eventually, the brunette lifts a hand to her mouth in an attempt to stifle the laugh that suddenly spills from between her lips. The sound of her laughter fills the carriage, and Cloud can’t do anything but watch her with wide eyes as his brain short circuits in an attempt to figure out an appropriate reaction while also locking away a memory of the serene sound of her laughter.

“That’s—”

Before the brunette has a chance to finish her sentence, Jessie speaks up again in the distance. “Cloud! This is our stop coming up, we need to get off! I’m _exhausted_!”

Ocean blue eyes meet emerald green again as Cloud gathers himself and stands up. “Sorry, I need to go it seems,” he says and turns to walk back to Jessie. Something inside of him stops him in his tracks, though, and his gaze falls back to the girl still seated. “I apologise again for tonight. I hope— I hope it didn’t make you too uncomfortable. Get home safe.”

With that, Cloud walks back to Jessie as the train reaches their stop. Too tired to complain, he lets his friend practically glue herself to him as he struggles to get both of them out through the separated train doors before they have a chance to close again.

* * *

“She did _what_?!” Tifa exclaims a little too loudly over lunch the following Monday, earning a few annoyed glances from other patrons in the café.

Cloud groans, covering his face with his hands. “This is your fault, you know,” he mutters from behind them, glaring at his raven haired friend through the gaps between his fingers. “If you hadn’t stupidly suggested Jessie take a photo of _a stranger_ , none of this would’ve happened.”

Tifa actually has the decency to feel bad about that, Cloud notes, when guilt flashes in her red eyes as she slumps a little in her chair.

“This is exactly why I always dread drinking with you guys.”

“Oh come on,” Tifa huffs. “We’re not always _that_ bad, you know!” She tries to defend herself and Jessie, though it is obvious to both of them that her defense is weak.

Cloud sighs, lowering his hands to grab the utensils he’d dropped on the table. Without another word, he stabs a few pieces of pasta and grumpily puts them in his mouth to chew on as he glances at Tifa again.

“Stop moping,” Tifa says between sips of water. “What’s done is done.”

Cloud just huffs in annoyance.

“Besides,” she starts, mindlessly swirling her fork through the vegetables in her salad. “It sounds like this, hm, _girl of your dreams_ , forgave you, right? You should try and talk to her again!”

“I—” Cloud starts, almost inhaling a bite of his food. He stops himself with a cough, frantically reaching for his glass to down the rest of his water. “First of all, who said anything about her being ‘the girl of my dreams’. Secondly, I will absolutely do no such thing. Ever.”

Tifa laughs in amusement. “Please, when was the last time you were interested in _anyone_. I was starting to think you’d lost that heart of yours,” she teases, pointing at him with the silverware in her hand. “She must be special for you to act like this. So you should talk to her! Reassure her that you actually aren’t _that_ much of a weirdo.”

“ _Hey_ , you and Jessie are the weird ones!”

“See! Didn’t even deny that you’re interested.” A smug smile spread on Tifa’s lips as she raises an eyebrow at the blond. “You might as well go for it now that you’ve come this far. Can’t really mess up more than you already have, right?”

Cloud opens his mouth to protest but the words get lost on his tongue. Biting down on his lip, he turns his head to avoid his friend’s stare. “ _I_ wasn’t the one messing up, thank you very much.”

Tifa rolls her eyes. “Sure, sure. Whatever. _Boring_ details that no one cares about! Just get the girl, Cloud!”

“No.”

“Why not?! Jessie said she was gorgeous and so your type!”

“ _No_.”

“So she isn’t?”

“That’s not— _Tifa_ , I’m not going to ask a stranger who probably thinks I’m the biggest weirdo ever out on a date,” Cloud says slowly, articulating his words to make it clear to his friend that this isn’t happening.

Tifa just smiles knowingly. “ _Fine_. I didn’t realise you were too much of a chicken to man up and do something about this crush of yours.”

The glare that Cloud shoots his friend does nothing but make her laugh, successfully annoying the blond even further. “It’s not about that.”

“I beg to differ.”

“I— you’re impossible,” Cloud groans, frustrated, as he stabs the last piece of pasta on his plate.

Tifa leans over the table then, carefully avoiding getting any food on her white tank top. “I think you’re the impossible one here, Cloud. You always overthink these things. Just strike up a conversation with her, you’ve done it before even if in a slightly more awkward setting. The worst that can happen is that she says no, that she isn’t interested.” Tifa leans back in his chair and shoots him a smile. “You should allow yourself to at least try, Cloud. You deserve to have someone in your who makes you blush like a little school girl.”

Deliberately ignoring Tifa’s last comment, Cloud lets another sigh fall from his lips. He detests how just Tifa knows exactly what to say to get through his thick skull and to his brain. “Fine,” he eventually agrees with defeat heavy in his voice. “I’ll consider it.”

“Great!” Tifa exclaims happily, and she claps her hands with a grin forming on her face, earning herself another glance or two.

“You’re too much,” Cloud groans, pushing himself up from the chair. “Let’s just pay for our food and get out of here already. My lunch break is over soon anyway.”

* * *

Almost two weeks pass by before he sees her again. It’s not that Cloud has actively tried to avoid her ever since the incident, but he may have been less reluctant to stay an extra hour or two at work to get some extra things done.

Who can really blame him, though, he tells himself. The situation he’s now stuck in is nerve wrecking. Not only does he deal with flashbacks of the incident and the anxious feeling that pools in his stomach from it, he now also deals with Tifa constantly pestering him about the entire situation. It drives him absolutely mad, to the point of almost begging Tifa to stop mentioning it. He doesn’t have it in him to disappoint his childhood friend, though. At least for now.

As he gets on the train a Thursday afternoon, two hours later than he normally would’ve before the incident, he lets out a relieved grunt when he leans against the side of the train, the cold feel of the glass windows cooling the overheated skin of his bare arms. Just as everyone had thought the intense summer heat had been over, the season’s trademark weather had come back even more intense than before.

Cloud lets out a content hum and lets his eyes fall shut. With rush hour pretty much over by now, the train isn’t too packed, and he enjoys the personal space he’s actually allowed for once. It makes it easier to breathe even in the stuffy carriage.

As his mind starts to drift towards thoughts he really isn’t interested in revisiting yet, he pulls out a pair of earbuds from his pocket. Putting them in, he feels his body relax as any unwelcome thoughts and noises from the train are drowned out by music.

Finally feeling relaxed, Cloud lets his head tip back to rest against the window behind him, his eyes still closed.

He stays like that for a while, with every intention of continuing until his body recognises that enough time has passed for the train to be nearing his stop. So when someone unexpectedly pokes him on the chest with a hard finger, his eyes flutter open in surprise. Expecting anyone but _her_ , Cloud almost chokes on the sharp intake of breath he takes when his eyes land on a heart shaped face with big green eyes staring at him amusedly. Without thinking, he yanks the earbuds out of his ears.

“Heya,” _she_ says cheerfully, and Cloud forgets how to breathe as Tifa’s words start ringing in his ears. “It’s been a while!”

Cloud blinks, confused by her cheerful tone, and swallows the lump in his throat. “Y-yeah. Uh, hey.”

Her flowery perfume hits his senses again, and he awkwardly runs a hand through his messy blond hair to hide the way his cheeks darken, awaiting the girl’s next words.

“Soooo,” is all she says, hands folded behind her back as she bounces on her feet. She’s wearing another pink dress today, Cloud notices, a darker one with thin straps that rest against her pale shoulders. Her chocolate brown hair is free from the braid he’s seen her wear so often.

“So?” He wonders out loud, unsure what exactly the brunette in front of him expects him to say.

A beat passes. “So tell me,” she begins then, a shy smile spreading on her lips. “Are you?”

Cloud feels his brows rise in confusion. “Am I what?”

The brunette’s confidence seemingly falters a little at his words, but she quickly regains herself and softly shakes her head at him. “That night on the train, you said something,” she starts, her hands moving to play with a strand of her long chocolatey hair. “You mentioned that your friend thought you were interested in me, and that that was the cause of everything that happened.”

She says it so nonchalantly, like she’d just asked him what the weather was like outside, and Cloud doesn’t know what to say. A part of him wants to deny it, wants to play off any interest he’s had in her since the beginning. But the soft smile on her lips and the glint in her eyes stops him, and he immediately is reminded of Tifa’s words.

 _You should allow yourself to at least try, Cloud_ , she’d told him.

Cloud swallows another lump, bracing himself for what he’s about to do. He isn’t used to doing this, isn’t used to even being interested in someone to begin with. Just as he’s convinced himself to explain himself, tell her the truth, he’s cut off as the brunette speaks up again.

“I figured it would be worth asking,” she admits sheepishly, her eyes shifting between the floor and Cloud’s face. “I’ve already spent too long hoping you’d maybe notice me.” Her face scrunches up adorably at her own words. “God, saying this out loud is _embarrassing_. But I even— I started staying longer at work, you know, after I noticed you getting on the train slightly later than my usual one. It was purely by accident at first, I’d been held up in the shop and I— I spotted you in the carriage that day, on my way home, and something just drew me to you.”

Wide blue eyes watches her carefully, urging her to continue.

“It was only a twenty minute difference anyway, so I told myself it wasn’t too weird,” she says with a short and self deprecating laugh. “It still kind of made me feel like a fool, though, even if I noticed the way you sometimes looked at me.” Cloud lets out a surprised sound at that, embarrassed to know he had been more obvious than he’d originally thought. “I— I’m not the best at this honestly, I’m kind of rusty, so I didn’t really know how to approach you without looking weird. So I waited, hoping you’d take the first step. I suppose you did in a way, though I hadn’t really expected it to be with the help of your drunk friend.”

Cloud stares at her, in shock, as his brain tries to work out everything the brunette in front of him had just admitted. “I—” he starts, his face heating up again.

“And you’ve been hard to track down since then, mister! I figured you were trying to avoid me when you didn’t get on the usual train after the weekend, so I’ve been going home at different times of the day the last two weeks in an attempt to catch you,” the brunette admits with a disapproving look. It falters slightly when something seems to dawn upon her, though, and her green eye suddenly widen. “I shouldn’t have told you that. Gosh, this is a lot more embarrassing than I imagined!”

“It’s okay—”

The girl holds up a hand to silence Cloud, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth as she seemingly considers her next words. “Let’s just— how about we try again? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. All the way from the beginning!” A small smile finds its way back to her lips, and the brunette then lowers her hand to hold it out for Cloud to shake. “Hi! I’m Aerith.”

_Aerith._

Her name is nothing Cloud could’ve ever imagined in his wildest dreams, but it fits her perfectly. Cloud almost forgets to breathe as he repeats her name in his head, and is only brought out of his brief trance when he notices the brunette’s hand still held out towards him. With flushed cheeks, Clouds watches her carefully as his body practically moves on its own to lift his hand and grab hers. He gasps quietly when he feels her squeeze it gently. “I, uh— Cloud. I’m Cloud.”

The smile on Aerith’s face widens at that. “I know,” she replies cheerfully and gives his hand a firm shake, taking Cloud by surprise.

“How—”

“I heard it the other night,” Aerith clarifies with a chuckle when she notices the confusion on Cloud’s face. “Your friend, remember? She yelled your name.”

“O-oh. Right.”

Cloud’s gaze drops to where his hands is still holding onto hers, and a shot of panic runs through his body when he realises he should probably let go. Awkwardly, he does so, and forces himself to meet Aerith’s gaze again. _So much for not acting like a highschooler_ , he mockingly thinks to himself.

A few seconds pass with neither of them saying anything.

“Will you answer my question now?” Aerith says then, breaking the surprisingly comfortable silence between them.

“Wha— what question?”

Aerith just smirks and steps slightly closer. “Will you tell me if you’re interested in me or not?”

Surprised, Cloud doesn’t manage to hold back the gasp that escapes his lips. He lifts a hand to his head, running it over his face to hide his embarrassment. “You’re killing me here.”

“I know,” Aerith sing-songs cheerfully and moves to stand next to Cloud, bumping her shoulder with Cloud’s arm. He inhales sharply at the softness of her skin against his. “It’s okay, Cloud. I think I know the answer to my question anyway. So tell me, what are you doing tomorrow night?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading - feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think! :)


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